Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
‘Flash duration’ isn’t a very glamorous topic, but it’s certainly something that every single photographer that uses flash should be aware of.
When we first learn photography, we are taught that ‘flash freezes motion’, and although this is true, it is an extremely relative term. In this article we’re going to look at exactly how frozen the motion actually is, and how we can limit that motion or movement in our shots as much as possible when using flash.
Shooting in bright sunlight can be tricky, even though there are ways to make fantastic photos using nothing but natural light. Still, you may need to add some strobes to even out the light, and there are some tricks that will make it look more natural and appealing. In this video, Dan and Sally Watson host Miguel Quiles, who shares four helpful tips for everyone who want to mix strobes with sunlight.
Shooting outdoors with natural light only can be demanding and tricky, especially if you’re shooting on a sunny day. But, although it’s challenging, it’s definitely not impossible to take impressive portraits even in the harsh midday sun. In this video, Miguel Quiles teams up with Dan and Sally Watson to bring you four quick and useful tips for shooting when you’ve got nothing but sunlight available.
Product photography is a lot of fun to experiment with, even if you’re not a product photographer. It can teach us things about composition, light and how different surfaces react to that light which we might not otherwise have discovered. But once you’ve gone past the basics, how do you push yourself to go that bit further?
In this video, the folks at COOPH offer up five great tips for creative product photography that you might not have thought of. Some will challenge your technical abilities while others are just to get those inspirational juices flowing.
When we’re kids, in school, we’re taught that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue. But this isn’t entirely accurate when it comes to light. Pure white sunlight is made up of a whole spectrum of colours, with the primaries actually being red, green and blue. Our cameras with Bayer filter arrays on the sensor see RGB. Our monitors also display RGB.
But have you ever wondered how we’re able to get so many different colours from just three? And why just blasting red, green and blue LEDs at an object doesn’t always give you true white light? This fascinating video from Technology Connections isn’t really specific to photography, but light in general, and how red, green and blue affects our (and our camera’s) perception of colour.
I will start with a warning: Digital Infrared Photography it’s not easy & this will get technical fast.
Backstory
It all started when I saw some awesome Instagram photos in infrared and I ordered an IR filter (an 88mm ice 760nm from B&H to be more precise) not knowing much about infrared. Filters usually range from 590 to 8-900 nm and usually, this kind of colored infrared shots are obtained with 590nm on a modded camera because it lets some visible light pass as well as infrared. But I had no modded camera and the wrong filter so I decided to try regardless and soon found out that my trusty DSLRs have well-made hot mirrors (the part of the DLSR that normally blocks IR from hitting the sensor) but later discovered that my phone’s sensor is quite sensitive to infrared and this is how my journey started.
Shooting in manual isn’t some magic bullet that will make all your shots perfect, no matter what some photographers might want you to believe. But there are things you need to understand in order to be able to use it effectively. Those three things are ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
In this video, photographer JoshinCincinnati walks us through the three basics of manual mode exposure, what they mean, and the implications of changing each.
Part of the joy of landscape photography for me is standing around and waiting for the light to change. You put your camera on its tripod, compose a shot and wait, taking photos every few minutes, whenever the sky or light or whatever looks interesting.
I caught the tail end of a storm in Santorini, Greece, with heavy clouds blowing over right at sunset. An hour or so later and it was blue hour, with streetlights and buildings lit up. Both photos are below, after being edited in Lightroom using the Lightroom Develop System.
When you’re working in Lightroom, you can add color to all local adjustments by selecting it from a swatch. But did you know that you can pick color from anywhere in the photo? As a matter of fact, you can pick it from anywhere on your computer. In this video, Matt Kloskowski shows you how to do it in Lightroom. It’s a very simple trick, and it also works in Photoshop.
We all make mistakes (and learn from them), and we’ll make so many different ones on our learning path. But some mistakes are more common than others. In this video, Serge Ramelli talks about the five most common editing mistakes photographers make in Lightroom. Do you recognize your old or current self in any of them?
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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